#DeclassifyNetajiFiles – U-turn of Modi Sarkar

It was the run of of 2014, when then National President of BJP, Rajnath Singh on the eve of the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, visited his birth place and raised the pitch for declassification of files relating to mysterious disappearance of Netaji. He hit the popular chord and said, “The entire country is impatient to know as to how Netaji died and under what circumstances.”

On April 9th 2013, the then, CM of Gujarat, Mr. Modi, while visiting Kolkata met with the relatives of Netaji. A letter signed by Netaji’s nephew Dr DN Bose on behalf of 24 members of the family was handed over to Mr. Modi. The family in the letter said, “Netaji belonged to the entire nation, so we extend our appeal to you for your kind support in demanding from the Prime Minister that the Central Government must release in public domain all records to help unravel the mystery about his fate and bring a closure to the issue”.

It raised high hopes and expectations were set for the “nationalist party”. Then President of the party took oath as the Home Minister of the nation. The then Chief Minister of Gujarat took oath as the Prime Minister of the nation.

But all the high promises that was made during the run up of the elections, found a usual U-turn in just 6 months in power. In reply to a RTI, The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has refused to declassify 39 files. It took a position similar to that of the previous UPA government. “Disclosure of documents contained in these files would prejudicially affect relations with foreign countries.” However in the reply the PMO has not mentioned about the names of the “foreign countries” that it was referring to.

The PMO has 4 top secret files with it, including two on Justice Mukherjee commission of inquiry, relating to transfer of his ashes to India and also that of correspondence with and about the widow and daughter of Netaji. It has 20 files classified as “secret” and the rest are categorised just as “classified”.

With the Government of the day, taking a sharp U-turns and failing to live up to the promises it has made during the election campaign, the question lies with the intention of the Government. Larger question lies whether such speeches and promises were just meant for electorate gain? The Government not even caring to mention the names of foreign nations, with whom relations will get affected also, raises a few eyebrows.

In just over six months of power, the government has taken a lot of U-Turns, and this one is an addition to the growing list. Certainly this will not go down well with the people of India and Bengal.

The Country’s biggest cover up was needed to be exposed, but the Government failed to live up to the promises made to the people and disappointed once again.